Ripon’s St Cecilia Orchestra will join with Leeds-based sitar virtuoso, Jasdeep Singh Degun, at Ripon Cathedral on 27th September in a spectacular Gala Concert bringing together the traditions of Western and Indian classical music. The concert, celebrating the orchestra’s 30th anniversary, showcases Degun’s own sitar concerto Arya, and his Lament for sitar, tabla and strings, paired with Rimsky-Korsakov’s ever-popular Scheherazade: ‘an exhilarating journey of love, intrigue and adventure’.
Jasdeep Singh Degun is known to many for his sensational collaboration with Opera North on their 2022 Orpheus project. Described as ‘a custodian of tradition and restless innovator’ who is ‘unconstrained by genre’, Degun has performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra, and recently played at the national VJ day memorial service.
His concerto Ayra (a Sanskrit word meaning noble, precious or valuable) is a powerful work that follows the sitar on a journey through its three movements. Beginning with an invocation, introducing the audience to the sound world of the sitar, the middle movement finds the orchestra beginning to flex its muscles and the sitar fighting to be heard, before they ultimately reach an understanding and find harmony with each other in the final movement.
The Lament for Sitar, Tabla and Strings is a short work taken from the Orpheus score – originally sung by the entire chorus with full orchestra and lamenting the death of the main character, Eurydice. In this arrangement, Jasdeep Singh Degun will be joined by tabla virtuoso, Gurdain Rayatt, acclaimed for his versatility and artistry across Indian classical, orchestral and cross-cultural music.
In the second half of the concert, the orchestra takes to the stage alone in Rimsky-Korsakov’s evocative masterpiece of storytelling, Scheherazade. Loosely based on the Arabian Nights tales, Rimsky-Korsakov hoped that listeners should carry away the impression that it is ‘beyond doubt a narrative of fairy-tale wonders’. At the helm will be guest conductor Gary Matthewman, making his third appearance with the orchestra, who has performed as a pianist and conductor alongside many of the most celebrated names in classical music, including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Imogen Cooper, Sir Thomas Allen, Joyce DiDonato and Peter Donohoe CBE. The orchestra is thrilled to welcome him back to Ripon for this exciting event.
Tickets for the concert, priced at £20-£35 for adults and free for under 18s can be purchased via Ticketsource (www.ticketsource.co.uk/st-cecilia). Unreserved tickets are also available from the Little Ripon Bookshop, Harrogate Theatre box office, and on the door from 6.45pm on concert day.
